


Weather Makers

by emungere



Category: Saiyuki
Genre: M/M, Mpreg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-11-26
Updated: 2006-11-26
Packaged: 2018-02-27 02:39:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2675882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emungere/pseuds/emungere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ni gives Doku some disturbing news. Eventually, he has to tell Kou.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Weathered

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Cicer's annual mpreg week. Much thanks to Chrissy for the beta.

It was already dark, their campfire the only light. The days were getting shorter, though Hakkai thought that the chill in the air had more to do with geography than astronomy.

"Like birds flying south for the winter," he said. "We take our weather with us."

"Wha?" Gojyo said.

"Oh, nothing. I apologize. Go back to sleep."

Gojyo rolled onto his side and smiled up at him. "Weirdo."

"Yes, I'm afraid that must come as awful shock to you."

"My poor heart can hardly take it."

Gojyo was still smiling, but his eyes were closing again. Hakkai touched his hair, stroking lightly, and heard his soft, happy hum. That was nice. Gojyo seldom allowed even these casual touches outside the privacy of a hotel room. Not that he _protested_ , but the tension in his body was easy enough to read.

Perhaps it was just as well. The red of Gojyo's hair against his skin made it look as if his hand was bleeding, but with Sanzo around to witness such displays, the possibility of real bloodshed shouldn't be overlooked.

Sanzo slept on the other side of the fire, Goku by his side. They were all exhausted, Hakkai included, but he found himself unable to rest. He'd had a feeling all day that there was something more to do, something coming. It was funny, he thought, that he was aware of these things now, like an extra set of senses gained much too late. Someone's idea of irony, no doubt.

A shadow moved on the edge of the clearing, and he stood, smoothing Gojyo's hair back one last time.

Before he'd taken two steps, Dokugakuji stepped into the light.

"I'm not here to fight," he said.

"I am pleased to hear that. Your brother is asleep."

"Not here to see him either." Dokugakuji rubbed a hand over his face and swore quietly. "Rather not, actually, if I can avoid it."

"Then why are you here, Dokugakuji-san?"

"Um. Hell. Look, can we take a walk?"

"I don't think so."

"I'm alone. You have my word."

"Please understand, it's not that I don't believe you, but you are only alone as far as you know. We have encountered more than a few difficulties today, and I don't intend to leave them asleep and defenseless."

Dokugakuji snorted. "Defenseless?"

"Relatively."

"Fine, whatever." He paused. "I've got a favor to ask."

"A favor?"

"You're a healer, right? Can you just...check me out?"

Hakkai frowned, somewhat concerned. This man was Gojyo's brother, after all. "Do you believe you are ill?"

"Not...ill. Just. Can you just check? The doctor at the castle told me something, and--hell, he had to be lying."

"This might easier if I had some idea of--"

"Please. If he's not lying...you'll know it when you see it."

"Very well."

Everything seemed normal, at first. The flow of his energy was strong and sure, certainly much healthier than Gojyo's often was, what with the cigarettes and alcohol. In fact, in one place it seem a little too strong.

Hakkai's hand hovered over the center of the disturbance, a knot of energy somewhere in Dokugakuji's lower stomach. In a woman, he would say-- It felt almost as if-- He looked deeper.

He opened his eyes again, somewhat shaken. "What did this doctor tell you?"

Dokugakuji paled. "Oh, fuck. It's true, isn't it?"

"You are... You do seem to be..." He paused and cleared his throat. "With child. Yes."

"Who's the father?"

"Don't you know? I'm sorry," he added. "That was rude. Of course, it's none of my business."

"No, you don't understand. I know who I've been--you know. With. I just want to know-- Look, this should be impossible. And what if it's not-- What if the doctor-- Shit. Just tell me if it's Kou's, okay? You can do that, right?"

"I believe so, yes. One moment. And please try to calm yourself."

Dokugakuji took a deep breath, and Hakkai rested a hand over his solar plexus, feeling again for that tiny growing thing inside him. It was an odd thing to feel in anyone, and odder still in a man, but it seemed both happy and healthy.

He could feel Dokugakuji's solid strength in it and even something of Gojyo, but the strongest thread tasted of magic, weaving through the rest and binding it all together. He only knew one person with that kind of power.

"It is the prince's," he said.

"And mine?"

"And yours."

"And there's nothing weird about it?"

"Other than the fact that it appears to be gestating quite normally in a male body, no."

Dokugakuji leaned back against a tree and let out a sigh. "Thank god."

Hakkai waited for him to pull himself together. It was certainly an interesting situation. Unique, even. It would be a shame to terminate the pregnancy, but he assumed that would be the next request.

"Is it... How is it going to come out?" Dokugakuji asked. "I mean. Where?"

"If you intend to carry her to term, I would recommend a cesarean section. _Strongly_."

Dokugakuji stared. "Her?"

"I believe it is a girl, though it's hard to be sure at this stage, and impossible to tell from physical characteristics."

"A girl..." Dokugakuji slid down the tree trunk until he was sitting on the ground. He looked up at Hakkai. "Am I going nuts?"

He did look awfully like Gojyo with that particular disbelieving expression on his face. Hakkai knelt beside him.

"I think your reaction is understandable, given the circumstances. You do wish to keep the baby, then?"

"Keep? You mean..."

"I thought abortion was the obvious alternative. It would certainly be more practical."

"No! I-- I'd have to talk to Kou, at least." He swallowed audibly. "This could really happen? I could really have this kid?"

"I believe so, yes. There have been certain...alterations made to your body. This doctor, could he...?"

"I wouldn't put anything past that sick bastard."

"I see."

There was silence for a long time. Dokugakuji had a lot to think about, and Hakkai saw no reason to rush him.

The grass was damp under Hakkai's knees, the starts overhead crisp and clear. One in particular shone so brightly that it dimmed the others around it, and Hakkai found music winding through his head: _Star of wonder, star of light...westward leading, still proceeding..._

This was not an immaculate conception, and the evening star was not a star at all, but the song still seemed fitting. He thought Dokugakuji could do worse than let Venus guide him.

Dokugakuji drew a deep breath and let it out again. His hands smoothed over his thighs. "Don't tell anyone, okay? Especially not Kou. Not until I figure out what to do."

Hakkai nodded.

"And if I decide to...get rid of it, you can do that?"

"I can." Privately, Hakkai thought that the curve of Dokugakuji's hand over his own stomach argued against the probability of that outcome.

"Okay." Dokugakuji stood and bowed slightly. "Thanks. I gotta go before someone misses me." He turned away.

"Dokugakuji-san?"

"Huh?"

"Bring the child by some time. I'm sure Gojyo would be glad to know his niece."

Dokugakuji flashed him a smile that seemed genuine enough. "I'll do that." And then he was gone.

Hakkai walked back to the fire and sat down beside Gojyo, who turned towards him, probably for warmth. The clearer the air, the colder. Hakkai spread his own blanket over Gojyo and laid a hand on his back.

He hadn't thought of children before Kanan had told him about the one growing inside her. He wondered sometimes if it had been the monster's at all. They'd been careful, but condoms could break. She had been, understandably, confused. It could have been his.

She hadn't wanted children, his children, because of the genetic risks. He'd been selfishly glad not to be forced to share her with a squalling helpless thing that would take her time and energy and love. There was barely enough room in his heart for her. The love of a father for a child, he'd been sure, was beyond him.

Now he remembered the tiny fraction of Gojyo in that growing life and smiled. The heart was just a muscle, after all. No doubt exercise was good for it.


	2. Storm

When it stormed at Houtou Castle, it sounded like an army trying to beat down the walls. When Doku told Kou that, Kou had smiled and said no, it didn't sound anything like that. It just sounded like rain.

Doku stood by himself up on the roof of the west tower. The rain did sound like rain up here, beating off his skull instead of four-foot-thick stone walls. It made the worn roof slippery and watered the light growth of moss. You'd think there'd be more after five hundred years, but it was just a few little fuzzy patches, like that one time Kou had decided to try to grow a beard. 

Kou would find him up here eventually. Not that he'd be looking, but he always seemed to show up when Doku or Yaone or Lirin wandered off for too long, like some herding instinct kicked in. He knew the exact face Kou would make on being compared to a sheep dog, and it made him smile.

"Up here in the rain, at night, smiling at nothing?" Kou said quietly behind him. "What's next, writing poetry?"

"I might. You never know."

"You do keep me guessing."

Kou came to stand in front of him and leaned back against his chest. The air above them shimmered, and the rain stopped falling on them, though it kept up all around and continued to make Doku's ankles damp.

"Uh, yeah," he said. "About that."

Kou waited. Doku knew from experience that he'd wait as long as he had to, which he guessed was what spending five hundred years cooped up in a castle did for you. You either went crazy or you learned to be pretty fucking patient. Or something. Kou was definitely something.

So, rather than wait another five hundred years, or nine months--or _fuck_ , probably less than that now--he should just spit it out. Yeah. With words. That came out of his mouth. Any time now.

He cleared his throat, hoping it would help. _You know how Lirin keeps saying she wants a little brother or sister to play with?_. No. Not a good way to start. There wasn't a good way to start. Right.

"Nii says I'm gonna have a kid. I asked Cho Hakkai. He said it's true. A girl. Yours."

He got through all of that, and Kou didn't say a word. He didn't say a word afterwards either, or tense up, or anything. Doku could only tell he'd heard by the way the air stopped glittering overheard and the rain started falling on them again.

"He said--Cho--that he could get rid of it. Her." He hadn't meant it to sound so much like offer because, well, because it wasn't. It would be a relief in a lot of ways, but. No. That had been an automatic no right from the second Cho said it, for reasons he didn't want to look at.

"And what did you say?" Kou asked. Doku almost couldn't hear him over the rain.

"I said no. I mean. Said I had to talk to you. You know."

"You want to keep...her."

"Don't know about want. Just. Kinda have to."

"Nii's probably counting on that."

As tactful responses from the father of your child went, Doku thought, it left something to be desired. But Kou was a prince before he was anything else, except maybe Lirin's big brother. If he wasn't who he was, Doku's life would be a whole fuck of a lot different, and probably over by now. Kou had to think about this stuff. And if Doku could've wished for maybe just a little enthusiasm, he was used to wishing for stuff he knew he wasn't going to get, so that was okay.

If wishes were fishes, we'd walk on the sea. His mother used to say that, when he was real little. He'd still never seen the sea, but he'd seen a lot of stuff with Kou he never thought he would.

So it was cool, and he opened his mouth to tell Kou that yeah, he was probably right, but they could cope with it. Only what he actually said was, "Yeah, thanks. That was real reassuring."

"I wasn't aware you needed reassuring."

He _didn't_ , that was the thing. He was the one who did the reassuring, always. That was his job, because he didn't have problems of his own anymore. He had Kou's problems, but in the end they were, after all, Kou's. That'd been the whole point of being Doku instead of Jien.

"I don't," he said. "It's cool."

There was another long silence, which he guessed was Kou trying not to tell him what a horrifically bad idea this was, which, _duh_. Obviously it was a bad fucking idea. He wasn't stupid.

"I'll leave if you want," he offered, and he might not be stupid, but he was sure saying some stupid shit tonight. He knows damn well Kou would never kick him out, over this or anything else, besides which, him leaving wouldn't solve anything. Nii got around.

"Don't be absurd," Kou said.

It made Doku stiffen, even though he knew was actually being absurd. Great. This was going even worse than he'd thought it would. "I'm gonna take a walk," he said, because if he didn't there was going to be a fight. A big one.

Kou didn't say anything to stop him, so Doku left him up there in the rain and took the winding stairs three at a time. He wasn't even winded when he hit the bottom, and he wanted to keep going. He made himself keep to a walk. He didn't want to be explaining to Lirin or Yaone why he was tearing through the halls.

He headed outside, but he didn't make it. In a place as big as this, it seemed like pure malice on someone's part that he met Yaone by the side gate, weighed down with bundles of herbs from the forest, soaking wet, with leaves in her hair. He couldn't just leave her to lug all that by herself.

She led the way back to her suite and spread the herbs out to dry on a canvas mat, frowning. "I hope they don't molder," she said. "It wasn't supposed to rain until later." She patted at them with a dry cloth. "Were you coming out to find me?"

"Nah. Just talking a walk."

"In the rain?"

"I'm not gonna melt."

"Well, yes. That is true." She gave him a little smile. "You won't molder either, but maybe you'd like a towel anyway?"

"Yeah. Thanks. I was up on the tower before."

She nodded and reached over, rubbing at his hair with the towel until it stood up in relatively dry spikes. He couldn't help smiling.

"Thanks."

"I know," she said.

"Uh. Okay?"

"I know... The doctor told me. About...what's happened to you."

Well, wasn't that just a totally fucking unsurprising punch to the gut. Of course Nii wouldn't tell just him, not when he could spread the misery and confusion around.

"And I told Lirin."

" _What_?"

"I thought it would be better than the doctor telling her. I'm surprised he didn't tell her first, really."

Doku took a breath and held it a second. "Right," he said, in a rush of air. "Right. You're right."

"Yes, I know."

"...You pissed at me?"

"If you were looking for confirmation, you could have asked me."

"Didn't want to worry you. Any of you." He paused. "You told Lirin, but you didn't tell Kou?"

"I assumed you would."

"I did. Just now."

"And you were planning to go for a walk in the rain right afterwards?"

"It didn't go great."

She pressed her lips together and touched his shoulder. "I'm sorry. He does have a lot to worry about."

"I know. Fuck. I know, okay?"

"Well. I'm glad you're here instead of out there. Shall I make us some tea?"

He didn't answer, which was fine because she'd already started making it. When it was ready, they both sat on the floor in front of the fire. Yaone leaned against his side, and he put an arm around her. The crackle of the fire was just audible over the pounding rain outside.

"When they came to take me away," she said quietly, "I had just enough time to take-- Well, it was that or simple poison, and I still had some hope. I'll never have children now."

He squeezed his eyes closed for a second and pulled her closer, maybe harder than he should've. He heard her gasp and let up, but she grabbed his hand with both of hers.

"No, it's all right," she said. "I shouldn't have... That wasn't a good thing to say right now."

"It was _fine_ , just...just fine. And so are you."

She smiled a little. "So are we all."

It was funny. He thought sometimes that, if all this hadn't happened, he might've married a girl like her. Or not just a girl like her, but actually her. They hadn't lived so far apart, before all their respective shit went down. It was funny, too, how everything got so fucked, but life just kept going.

Kou came in a while later and stood next to Doku, dripping water into a puddle on the floor. Doku pulled him down and draped an arm around him too.

"I think maybe I should apologize," Kou said. It was almost, but not quite, a question.

Doku snagged the towel, draping it over Kou's head. It covered most of his upper body, and he just stayed there, frozen with that shocked thing he still did sometimes when one of them failed utterly to treat him like royalty. Doku found it completely adorable, not that he'd ever tell anyone that.

"It's a towel," he said. "For your hair. Not a trap, honest."

Kou made a little hmph noise and rubbed at his hair. He let the towel slip back to the floor. "I said--"

"I got ears," Doku said.

"All right," Kou said slowly.

"Yaone told Lirin. Don't get mad, just be glad you don't have to."

There was a long silence, but when Kou said, "I am," he said it with feeling. "I was worried," he added more quietly. "Nii is a dangerous man."

"I know."

"I won't let him hurt you."

Doku laughed quietly and pulled him close to kiss the top of his head. "I know that too."

Kou struggled upright and brushed down his sodden clothes, clearly also struggling for dignity. Again, adorable. Also, kind of hilarious, like how Kou could kick his ass so thoroughly he wouldn't have any ass left at the end of it, but didn't have a hope of beating him at arm wrestling.

"You're sure this is what you want to do?" Kou said, at last. "It won't be easy."

"He's sure, my lord," Yaone replied, her voice quiet but firm.

Kou shifted and rubbed his palms down his thighs. "Is he."

"I believe so, my lord."

"He could say so himself."

"Hasn't he?"

Kou was smiling now a little, and his eyes cut sideways to Doku. "Not in so many words."

Yaone smiled a bit also, down at her hands clasped in her lap. "Maybe he finds those particular words difficult to say."

"You guys suck," Doku said.

"I don't think those are quite the words Lord Kougaiji had in mind," Yaone said.

They weren't going to let up. "Oh, fuck. Fine." He sighed and rolled his eyes at Kou. "I want to have your baby. Happy now?" He said it deadpan and hoped he wasn't blushing or something stupid like that. It was worth it to hear the two of them laughing, the two most solemn people he knew.

And if it was really more like not wanting to _kill_ Kou's baby than wanting to have her, well, he didn't need to say that. It wouldn't help, and he'd rather see them happy. Besides, even if the having part kind of freaked him out, afterwards might not be so bad. He hadn't minded taking care of Gojyo at all.

Doku tightened his arms around both of them, smiling to himself. The other funny thing about life was that nothing ever really changed, even when everything changed.


End file.
